Tag: Golden Gate Park
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What is Missing?
California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park **** This piece, titled What’s Missing is by Maya Lin. The photo above was taken from outside the fence that rings the Academy of Sciences. Entry to the Academy is $30 for adults. The permanent site-specific sculpture is the first component of an international multi-sited, multimedia art work…
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Spreckles Temple of Music
Music Concourse Golden Gate Park Spreckels Temple of Music This is the third bandstand to grace Golden Gate Park. Claus Spreckels (The Sugar King) gave $75,000 towards the $78,810 cost of the building. The shell is an Italian Renaissance style with an acoustically reflective coffered shell standing 70 feet high and covered in Colusa Sandstone.…
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The Drum Bridge at the Japanese Tea Garden
Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park San Francisco’s first Japanese Tea Garden was originally developed by art-dealer George Turner Marsh as part of the 1894 Midwinter Fair, an event that brought the City by the Bay into the international limelight. Shinshichi Nakatani was selected to design and build the Drum Bridge (Taiko Bashi). He built…
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Japanese Tea Garden
Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park The Japanese Tea Garden was created by George Turner Marsh as a “Japanese Village” feature of the 1894 MidWinter Exposition. Marsh, an Australian, had lived for several years in Japan and had an interest in traditional Japanese Gardens. To create the village, he brought materials and hired craftsmen directly…
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Amazarasti-No Hotoke
Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park At the eastern end of Long Bridge, inside the Japanese Tea Garden sits this magnificent statue. It is “Amazarasti-no Hotoke” meaning “The Buddha that sits throughout the sunny and rainy weather without shelter”. The figure was cast in 1790 at Tajima, Nara Prefecture, on Honshu for the Taioriji Temple.…
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San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
100 JFK Boulevard Golden Gate Park The oldest extant structure in Golden Gate Park is also its most beloved: the Conservatory of Flowers. This beautiful, white-washed structure is the oldest wood-and-glass conservatory in America. It is believed that James Lick, a prominent and wealthy San Franciscan, purchased the conservatory as a kit from Ireland for $2050…
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Golden Gate Park – William McKinely
The Panhandle Baker Street Between Oak and Fell * * * * William McKinely by Robert Ingersoll Aitken The Panhandle is a park that forms a panhandle with Golden Gate Park. The Panhandle is near the geographic center of the city, and forms the southern boundary of the Western Addition neighborhood and the northern boundary…
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Golden Gate Park – Windmills
Golden Gate Park Windmills The North Windmill Queen Wilhelmina Park The Murphy Windmill The Murphy Windmill Today There are two windmills in Golden Gate Park that served a valuable purpose when they were built. When the park was first being developed the focus was on planting trees to stabilize the ocean dunes that covered three-quarters…
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Kezar Stadium
Golden Gate Park Kezar Stadium * * * What it looked like originally Every San Francisco 49er faithful knows that this was the first home of the team. What they may not know is who played their first. An appropriation of $200,000 from the City of San Francisco and a $100,000 endowment by Mary Kezar…
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Golden Gate Park – Sharon Building
Golden Gate Park Sharon Building * * * * This delightful example of what some say is Victorian Romanesque architecture and others say is Richardsonian Romanesque, was designed by architects George Washington Percy and Frederick F. Hamilton. The building is the result of a $50,000 donation from silver baron, Nevada senator, and unscrupulous bank owner,…
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Golden Gate Park – Verdi
Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * * * * Giuseppe Verdi by Orzio Grossoni March 23, 1914. The statue was dedicated to the sounds of the sweet voice of soprano Luisa Tetrazzini. She sang the aria from Aida to a reported audience of 20,000. The memorial was a gift of the Italian Community spearheaded by…
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Golden Gate Park – Robert Emmet
Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * Robert Emmet was an Irish nationalist and Republican, orator and rebel leader born in Dublin, Ireland. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1798. In 1803 he was captured, tried and executed for high treason. The Emmet statue shows the 25 year old making his famous “Speech…
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Golden Gate Park – Beethoven
Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * * As a gift from the Beethoven Men’s Choir, the dedication of this statue coincided with the attendance of the Choir at the Pan Pacific International Exposition and a grand concert of Beethoven’s works held at the Civic Auditorium that evening (August 6, 1915). The monument, which was draped…
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Golden Gate Park – Pioneer Woman
Golden Gate Park * * * * Pioneer Woman and Children Charles Grafly 1915 This is the only statue of a woman in Golden Gate Park. It is the 1914 work of Charles Grafly. It was featured at the PPIE (Panama-Pacific International Exposition) in 1915 and then again at the GGIE (Golden Gate International Exposition)…
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Golden Gate Park – Thomas Starr King
Golden Gate Park JFK Drive * Thomas Starr King – Bronze – 1892 – by Daniel Chester French This statue was unveiled by Thomas Starr King’s grandchildren on October 26, 1892. Thomas Starr King was born December 17, 1824 Mr. King was an American Unitarian and Universalist minister, influential in California politics during the American…
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Golden Gate Park – John McClaren
Golden Gate Park Rhododendron Grove John McLaren, Supervisor of Golden Gate Park from 1890 until his death in 1943, detested statues. He hated them with such a passion that he defied the City authorities and persisted in his lifelong crusade to keep Golden Gate Park statue-free. It is fitting, then, that for his efforts McLaren…
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Golden Gate Park – Father Junipero Serra
Golden Gate Park Father Junipero Serra by Douglas Tilden This is Father Junipero Serra, one of the most studied men in California history. Born November 24, 1713, Serra was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the chain of missions that go from Mexico to San Francisco, California, he died August 28, 1784. Father Serra…
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Golden Gate Park – General Pershing
Golden Gate Park Music Concourse A tribute to General Pershing and the victorious armies of the United States and her co-belligerents during the World War 1914-1918 Presented by Dr. Morris Herzstein 1922 Bronze by Haig Patagian * Haig Patigian is noted for his classical works, which are especially numerous in public venues in San Francisco,…
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Golden Gate Park – Ulysses S. Grant
Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * Ulysses S. Grant by Rupert Schmid The pedestal of the bronze bust lists the principle battles of the generals’ command. It was sculpted by Rupert Schmid and funded by a citizens committee in 1904. (However, there are articles the say it was installed in 1894 and 1896). Schmid had…
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Golden Gate Park – Rideout Memorial Fountain
Golden Gate Park Music Concourse Rideout Memorial Fountain The Rideout Memorial Fountain – 1924 * This area was developed for the Midwinter Fair’s Grand Court of Honor. The grounds were sculpted from sand dunes by men using horse-drawn sleds. The fountain, dedicated in 1924, was made possible with a $10,000 gift from Corrine Rideout. Corrine…
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Golden Gate Park – Portals of the Past
Golden Gate Park Lloyd’s Lake This is the reservoir for the water pumped up its adjacent hill to Rainbow Falls. The water is circulated via the JFK Drive stream, and pours back into the lake in a cascade at its southwest corner. A trail entrance from Transverse Drive leads up the hill overlooking the water.…
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Golden Gate Park – Stow Lake
Golden Gate Park Completed in 1893, Stow Lake is considered a landscaping masterpiece. Created out of sand dunes by park superintendant John McLaren, it is the largest of Golden Gate Park’s lakes. Massive holes were dug out of the sand, carloads of clay were wheeled in and windmills were built to draft water from natural…
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Golden Gate Park – William D. McKinneon
Golden Gate Park * Chaplain William D. McKinneon First California US VOL INF 1898-99 Here is an excerpt from “San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: A Thousand and Seventeen Acres of Stories” “William D. McKinnon taught at Santa Clara University and was chaplain with the First U.S. Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War in the Philippines.…
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Golden Gate Park – Cervantes
Golden Gate Park Music Concourse Museum Drive just off JFK Drive * * Miguel Cervantes Memorial by Jo Mora Bronze and Stone 1916 This work was presented to the City of San Francisco by J.C. Cebrian and E.J. Molera, September 3, 1916. It is so appealingly, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza looking up to their…
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Golden Gate Park – Atop Rainbow Falls
Golden Gate Park Atop of Rainbow Falls Atop of Rainbow Falls is the Prayer Book Cross (also called Drake’s Cross). It is the tallest monument in the park at 64 feet with base. It is not easy to reach, and is well hidden by foliage. It was erected in Golden…
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Golden Gate Park – Robert Burns
Golden Gate Park * * The Plaque reads:Robert Burns 1759-1796To a Mountain Daisy 1786 Wee, modest crimson-tipped flow’r, Thou’s met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem: To spare thee now is past my pow’r, Thou bonie gem. This plaque donated by the Caledonian Club of San…
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Golden Gate Park – Turtle Sun Dial
Golden Gate Park In front of the de Young Museum * This sundial by Melvin Earl Cummings was named by the North American Sundial Society ‘Navigator’s Dial’ because on the dial face there are the images of three explorers of the California coastline. The memorial sun dial was given to San Francisco by the California…
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Golden Gate Park – Roman Gladiator
Golden Gate Park * Roman Gladiator – 1881 by Geef In Commemoration of the Inauguration of the California Midwinter International Exposition On this spot the first shovelful of earth was turned with ceremonies on August 24th 1893. (That first spade of shovel was turned by President William Howard Taft) After the popular 1893 Columbian Exposition…
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Golden Gate Park – Sphinx
Golden Gate Park * Copies of Sphinx by Arthur Putnam – 1912 These sit to the right of the entry to the new de Young Museum. The plaque on them reads: This pair of concrete sphinxes replaces the original black granite sculptures commissioned from Arthur Putnam for the entrance to the Egyptian revival Fine Arts…